Guess Who’s Jumping on the EV Bandwagon?

You’ve probably already heard the big news in electric cars. Okay, not the launch of the new Tesla model – but the announcement by Volvo that it will manufacture only electric cars starting in 2019. Wow, that’s just a couple years from now!

Diving Right In

Unlike other auto manufacturers, Rolls-Royce has made the decision to skip the offer of hybrid vehicles and roll out pure electric cars. Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Otvös didn’t mince words when the announcement was made.

“Electrification is the way forward – and there will be no in between steps for us like hybridization,” he recently said during a public appearance. “It is the propulsion system for the future, make no error. There is a time – nobody can predict when – when there will be no combustion engines. That will take a long, long time, but it will happen.”

But, while electric powertrains are the future, Rolls-Royce says it will not accept what it calls “the compromise” of hybrid technology. The luxury brand will launch an electric car only when battery technology has been sufficiently developed.

No Hybrids For Rolls

When asked why Rolls-Royce isn’t interested in bridging the gap with a hybrid model until it has its own electric version ready, Müller-Otvös explained, “The Rolls-Royce brand is not, in a way, a game-changer when it comes to revolutionary technology. Our customers are doing so for reasons of utmost luxury, so there can be no imperfections.”

No Self-Driving Rolls-Royces For The Time Being

BMW is the parent company of Rolls-Royce. It’s well known that they’re working on electric cars, and the two companies will share the BMW solution when it’s finally presented. BMW also is working – along with many other manufacturers—on autonomous technology, or self-driving cars.

Will we see a self-driving Rolls-Royce? The car company did show off a Rolls Vision 100 concept car as a part of the BMW Group’s 100th anniversary last year. It was an all-electric autonomous vehicle. The company CEO says self-driving Rolls-Royces are not a priority.

Technology Concerns?

Get ready for a reality reset chuckle. “For our customers, it’s not really a requirement because many have chauffeurs,” Müller-Otvös says. Like any good CEO, he listens to his customers. While they might be eager for an electric Rolls, “I haven’t had a single customer say to me: ‘Torsten, when is the autonomous Rolls-Royce coming?’”

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